The Miracle of MSM The Natural Solution for Pain by Stanley W. Jacob Ronald W Laurence Martin Zucker (z-lib.org) (1).pdf

STANLEY W. JACOB, M.O.,
RONALD M. LAWRENCE, M.D., Ph.O.,
AND MARTIN ZUCKER
Foreword by William Regelson, M.D.
THE MIRACLE OF
MSM
THE
N AT URAL
SOLUTION
FOR PA I N
Relieves Back Pain • Headaches
• Muscle Pain • Arthritis • Athletic Injuries •
Allergies • And more
"Here is something natural, a supplement that appears to be safe
and is helping many people. Why shouldn't you be one of them?"
—William Regelson, M.D., coauthor of
1 The Melatonin Miracle

^^c>_
l"-!
The Miracle of MSM
i
I

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The Miracle of M S M
W
The Natural Solution for Pain
Stanl ey W . Jacob , M.D
.
Ronald M. Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.
Martin Zucker
i:
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK

THE MIRACLE OF MSM
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with
the authors
PRINTING HISTORY
G. P. Putnam's Sons edition / February 1999
Berkley trade paperback edition / December 1999
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1999 by Stanley W. Jacob. M.D., Ronald M. Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.
and Martin Zucker.
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Pvery effort has been made to ensure that the information con-
tained in this book is complete and accurate. However, neither the
publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional
advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures,
and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a sub-
stitute for consulting with your physician and obtaining medical
supervision as to any activity, procedure, or suggestion that might
affect your health. Accordingly, individual readers must assume
responsibility for their own actions, safety, and health, and neither
the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any
loss, injury, or damage allegedly arising from any information or
suggestion in this book.

To my beloved children—Stephen, Jeffrey, Darren, Robert,
and Elyse.
^Stanley Jacob, M.D.
To Eleanor, Michele, Lesli, Stewart, Allison, and Jeremy.
—Ronald M. Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.
To Rosita, my precious soul mate, for patience, support, and love.
—Martin Zucker

Acknowl edgments
'he authors would like to express gratitude to the many peo-
ple who helped in the making of this book:
To Jack Scovil, literary agent extraordinaire, for foresight,
insight, guidance and good humor.
To Stacy Creamer, our editor, for keeping us firmly focused
and making many winning suggestions.
To the following individuals who generously shared with the
authors their personal experiences for the purpose of giving hope
to others in pain: Sue Ellen Andrus; Helen Brant; Joe Bryan;
Cheryl Brown; Dick Brown; Father Sam Bungo; Charlotte Callan;
Lynne Chauncey; James Coburn; Carol Davis; Linda Dickter; Dan
Drown; Katherine Dubik; Mary and Albert Duell; Chris Dugan;
Joe Durkee; Helle Ebbesen; James Fitzsimmons, M.D.; Maggie
Fredericks; Haruo "Foozie" Fujisawa; Marian Gormley-Pekkola;
Cindy Honaker; Ruth Ann Hubler; Margaret Itow; Stephen
Jacob; Joyce Jensen; June Jones; Kaye Kolkmann; Gail Lind;
Richard Liss; Paul Lisseck; Scott Magers; Pekka Mero; Fritz
Meyer; Dorothy Miller; Liz and Ken Miners; Ellen Nelson; Bar-
bara Norman; Doug Ohmart; Alondra Oubre, Ph.D; Nick and
Vincenza Puccio; Barbara Redmond; Thomas Reilly; Bill Rich;

Jeff Roake; Michele Robinson, L.P.N. ; Tom Rodriquez; Angela
Driscoll Ryan, R.N.; Lou Salyer; Laura Scozzaro, L.P.N. ; Linda
Scotson; Joyce Scott; Gary Sebring; Melvin Shiota; Frank Smith;
Beverly Spencer; Lyn Stadish, M.D.; J. Tomita; Sue Watson; Nic
Wickliff; Hermine Zubko.
To the following clinicians for sharing their observations on
MSM: David Blyweiss, M.D., of the Institute of Advanced Medi-
cine in Lauderhill, Florida; Stacy Childs, M.D., of Cheyenne,
Wyoming; Jeffrey Marrongelle, D.C., Schuylkill Haven, Pennsyl-
vania; Trent Nichols, M.D., of the Center for Nutrition and
Digestive Disorders in Hanover, Pennsylvania; Efrain Olszewer,
M.D., of the International Preventive Medicine Clinic of Sao
Paulo, Brazil; Richard Schaefer, D.C., Wheeling, Illinois; John L.
Tate, D.D.S., Spartanburg, South Carolina; Craig Zunka, D.D.S.,
Front Royal, Virginia.
To the following individuals for sharing valued expertise:
Vivien Gore Allen, Ph.D., professor of plant and soil science at
Texas Tech University; Siegward Elsas, M.D., Department of
Neurology of the UCLA School of Medicine; Maria C. Linder, pro-
fessor of biochemistry, California State University at FuUerton;
Eric S. Saltzman, Ph.D., professor of marine and atmospheric
chemistry. University of Miami; Dana Ullman, M.P.H.; nutri-
tional researchers Melvyn Werbach, M.D., and Jeffrey Moss,
D.D.S.
To the following individuals for ideas, inspiration and assis-
tance in locating MSM users: Rex Bailey; Arkie Barlet; Bill Fleet;
Cindy Kornspan; John Turner; Joan and Lydia Wilen.
To Rita Randall, Jessica Whorton, Marion Odell, and Gwen
Crippen for administrative assistance.
And to Roger Cathey for superb fact-finding, critical reviews,
and conceptualizing under pressure.

ote to the Reader
^his book about the nutritional supplement MSM is not
intended as medical advice and should not be used to replace med-
ical care or any therapeutic program recommended by a physician.
It is meant for information and education only.
If you have symptoms or suffer from an illness, you should
consult with an appropriate health professional for your condition.
If you are currently taking prescription drugs, do not discon-
tinue them or replace them based on any of the information or rec-
ommendations appearing in this book without first consulting
your doctor.
Clinical experience indicates that MSM does not interfere
with any medication. However, if you are under treatment for any
condition and are considering taking MSM, we recommend that
you first inform your physician and obtain his or her opinion.

The authors invite correspondence from readers describing personal
experiences with MSM. Include an address and phone number with the
letter, and mail to: MSM, PO Box 447, Agoura Hills, CA 91376-0447.
Readers with questions about MSM are also welcome to write to the
same address. Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that
can be used for the reply.

Contents
Foreword XV
Part One: ABC's of MSM
1. Amazing MSM 3
2. Roots of MSM—The DMSO Connection 17
3. How to Take MSM 40
4. MSM and Pain 5
1
5. MSM and Inflammation 69
Part Two: How MSM Helps Relieve Common Pain Problems
6. Arthritis (Osteoarthritis) 81
7. Back Pain 98
8. Headaches 107
9. Fibromyalgia II4
10. Muscle Pain and Athletic Injuries 122
II. Tendinitis 1 33

12. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome 139
13. Temporonnandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ) 145
14. Dental Pain 149
15. Heartburn and Hyperacidity 154
Part Three: How AASM Helps Relieve Your Allergies
16. Pollen Allergies 161
17. Asthma 171
18. Sinusitis 181
19. Food Allergies 184
Part Four: How AASM Helps Relieve Other Pain Problems
20. Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Interstitial Cystitis,
Scleroderma 191
Appendix A. Extra Benefits 215
Appendix B. Truth or Fiction—Sifting Through the
MSM Claims 225
Appendix C. Selected References 235
Index 245

Foreword
^ou are about to read a report on MSM, a nutritional supple-
ment attracting widespread excitement similar to the enthusiasm
I witnessed a few years ago with the publication of my books on
melatonin and DHEA.
MSM appears to be another natural substance promising sub-
stantial benefits, such as relief from pain, inflammation, and aller-
gies, for those who take it as a nutritional supplement.
As a physician, my concern for patient care always involves
the fundamental principle of "Do no harm." Unfortunately, in
our efforts to help patients with disability and discomfort, we
often rely on medications that have significant toxicity and create
adverse side effects.
As a medical oncologist and gerontologist, I am always skep-
tical of the value of a nontoxic drug, but many vitamins and food
supplements have a place in medicine as substances offering thera-
peutic effects without major clinical toxicity. The use of agents
such as melatonin and MSM is giving health professionals new,
safer options with which to help combat the debility of chronic
disease.

xvi Foreword
MSM is nontoxic! Preliminary studies and the many testimo-
nials reported in this text from people who have taken MSM, even
for chronic, severe, and long-term conditions, give us tantalizing
evidence of a form of relief that the medical community should
take seriously.
I have known Dr. Stanley Jacob for many years and am famil-
iar with his outstanding work at the Oregon Health Sciences Uni-
versity in Portland, where he has treated thousands of patients
with severe pain. I became interested in MSM because of my long-
standing knowledge of its parent compound, DMSO, which over
the years has clearly demonstrated its value throughout the world
for uses as varied as pain relief, head trauma, scleroderma, intersti-
tial cystitis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, retransforma-
tion of cancer cells, and Alzheimer's disease.
MSM is an odorless metabolite of DMSO! It is a nontoxic rel-
ative of its parent compound. Does it have some of the numerous
physiologic effects of DMSO? Time will provide the full answer to
this question. I do feel that the combined clinical experiences
reported in this book by doctors Jacob and Lawrence, along with
the myriad of anecdotal reports they have collected, give a promis-
ing picture of significant validity regarding MSM's pain and
inflammatory relieving effects. I hope this book will stimulate
larger controlled clinical trials. Perhaps the Office of Alternative
Medicine at the National Institutes of Health will be inspired to
conduct such research that will yield greater understanding of the
mechanisms and potential of MSM. Until such studies are com-
pleted, we have to depend on the detailed experiences reported in
this book.
Each patient is an individual and tends to respond differently
to the same drug or supplement. But as you read the vast collec-
tion of data and reports in this text, you will learn that MSM
appears to be safe and is helping many people.
If you do try MSM, keep your physician informed and follow
the thoughtful instructions in the book. Your physician will ask if
MSM is a safe and effective nutritional supplement. Read the
book! I feel the information presented suggests an answer. How-

Foreword xvii
ever, only your experience can establish the validity of the claims
for MSM.
—William Regelson, M.D.
professor of medicine,
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia,
and co-author of The Melatonin Miracle
and The Super-Hormone Promise

Part ONE ^
^^^^^^
ABC'S of MSM

Chapter One
Amazing MSM
^ow do you spell pain relief?
These days, more and more people are spelling it M-S-M.
MSM is a nutritional supplement rapidly establishing a repu-
tation as a safe, natural and effective solution for many types of
pain and inflammatory conditions, including:
• Degenerative wear-and-tear arthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic back pain
• Chronic headaches
• Muscle pain
• Fibromyalgia
• Tendinitis and bursitis
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
- TMJ
• Post-traumatic pain and inflammation
• Heartburn
MSM stands for methylsulfonylmethane, a natural substance
present in food and in the human body. Don't bother trying to

4 The Miracle of MSM
pronounce the name. Throughout the book we will refer to it sim-
ply as MSM.
MSM is often so effective for pain relief that doctors are able to
lower the dosage of medication they prescribe for patients. Some-
times they are even able to discontinue the medication. The end
result is relief along with fewer or no side effects that are fre-
quently caused by prescriptive pain medications.
An exciting and natural option for pain relief has arrived—
a
nutritional supplement that supplies biologically active sulfur, a
sorely neglected mineral nutrient. Sulfur has a long tradition of
healing and throughout history physicians have prescribed min-
eral hot springs rich in sulfur to their infirm patients.
Stories are spreading about remarkable recoveries with
MSM—some that occur dramatically, others involving slow and
steady improvement after patients have suffered with intractable
pain for years—stories such as these:
• A Colorado mail carrier who was told she would need
surgery on her painful arthritic knees. She no longer has pain, no
longer needs pain pills, and has avoided the surgery.
• An Oregon woman whose doctors said she would never
walk and be normally functional again after her back was crushed
in an automobile accident. Today she is not only walking, but she
works 100 hour weeks and actively participates in physical
improvements at the private school she owns and operates.
• An Arizona doUmaker who suffered from the headaches
and widespread pain of fibromyalgia for five years. Pain pills made
her sick, so she took anti-depressants because she had no life left.
Three weeks on MSM removed much of the pain and gave her a
new lease on life.
• A Massachusetts teacher who developed a severe form of
temporomandibular joint disorder—known as TMJ—that often
turned the simple act of talking into torture. Baby food replaced
solid food, which she could no longer chew. In a slow process that

Amazing MSM 5
took months, MSM first cleared up most of the pain and then the
massive inflammation of her jaw joint, allowing her to resume a
normal life.
• A Canadian researcher with chronic tendinitis of the arm,
and his wife, a hairdresser who had developed back pain from
years of standing and serving customers in her beauty salon, were
both relieved of their pain with MSM.
The foregoing cases, covered in greater detail later in the
book, are a tip of the iceberg, an indication of the broad pain-
relieving potential of MSM.
Clinical experience involving thousands of cases has demon-
strated that MSM provides relief in about 70 percent of patients
with pain. Given the massive incidence of pain problems in our
society, this suggests a huge role for MSM if it were to be recom-
mended by physicians as an addition to their regular treatment of
pain. MSM certainly fits the growing demand of patients seeking
alternative remedies that do not cause adverse side effects.
The Pain Epidemic
In the U.S., pain has reached "epidemic" proportions, according to
a July 1997 Science News Report issued by the American Medical
Association. Citing Norman J. Marcus, M.D., director of the New
York Pain Treatment Program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New
York City, the report said that "tens of millions of Americans suf-
fer from some form of pain each year, taking a substantial toll on
their productivity in the workplace and their ability to take care of
their responsibilities at home."
According to The Management of Pain, a two-volume reference
book for physicians published in 1990, more than one-third of the
American population have chronic painful conditions and of
those, half or more are partially or totally disabled for periods of
days, weeks, months, years, or permanently.

Such pain comes in many forms:
• Headaches that disrupt productivity among 40 million
Americans each year.
• Back pain suffered by 36 million people.
• Arthritis afflicting more than 40 million individuals. This
includes degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis), the most
common type, 21 million sufferers; fibromyalgia, affecting
3 to 6 million; and rheumatoid arthritis, the most crip-
pling type of the illness, 2.5 million.
• Neck pain—20 million.
• Another 24 million people are debilitated in some way by
muscle pain.
• Other painful disorders—neurologic, cardiac, cancer,
facial, and abdominal—involve more than 1 1 million.
• So-called repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) affect the hands,
arms, shoulders, necks and backs of countless workers who
constantly repeat the same motions day after day, year after
year, motions such as gripping, twisting, bending, lifting,
reaching, cutting, and keying. Unlike a sudden accident,
these overuse conditions develop slowly and cause minute
trauma to muscles, tendons, joints, and nerves. Over time,
the damage builds up into severe pain, numbness, inflam-
mation, restriction of joint movement, loss of strength
and manual dexterity, arthritic conditions, and, if left
untreated, lasting disability. According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, RSIs account for about 60 percent
—
and rank first—among all work-caused physical illnesses.
• The medical cost of disability, as well as loss of productiv-
ity, is estimated at more than |100 billion per year for per-
sistent pain.

Amazing MSM 7
The Side-Effects Epidemic
Treatment of pain typically revolves around pharmaceutical drugs
and has contributed to sales that have made the pharmaceutical
industry the nation's most profitable as measured by return on
investment. While many conditions are so painfully severe that
they require powerful medication, there is a serious downside to
widespread usage—the issue of safety. Adverse reactions to med-
ical drugs are believed responsible for more than 100,000 deaths
and 1.5 million hospitalizations in the U.S. each year, according
to reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association and
other leading medical publications. Fatal drug reactions are, in
fact, among the leading causes of death.
Medical authorities continually caution physicians and
patients alike regarding the use of nonsteroidal anti-
inflammatories (NSAIDs) for pain conditions. They frequently
cause ulcers, serious side effects, and even fatalities. Recently, one
such drug was removed from the market shortly after it was
approved because of four deaths and illness necessitating liver
transplants among eight of its users.
Many of our patients come to us with drug-induced symp-
toms. They are often unable to continue taking NSAIDs pre-
scribed by other physicians because they cannot tolerate the side
effects of stomach pangs, acid reflux, and nausea.
Steroidal drugs such as cortisone are also widely prescribed to
reduce the inflammation associated with a wide array of painful
conditions. These are important drugs but they frequently lead to
unhealthy weight gain, high blood pressure, a characteristic
"moon face," and even diabetes.
MSM-Relief Without
Side Effects
Two of us (Jacob and Lawrence) are medical doctors with nearly
ninety years of combined clinical experience treating severe and

debilitating pain problems. One of us (Jacob) participated in the
development of MSM and was the first physician to use MSM in
the treatment of patients nearly twenty years ago. We have both
repeatedly seen MSM significantly ease the suffering of patients
with different types of pain and inflammatory conditions and
restore their ability to function more normally. In our opinion,
MSM can greatly reduce the staggering amount of disability and
loss of productivity caused by chronic pain.
People continually tell us:
• "I wish I had had known about MSM before."
• "MSM has given me my life back."
• "Thank God for something natural that relieves my pain
without giving me any side effects."
• "Nothing worked for me before this."
•• "It's like a miracle."
In this book you will encounter many such remarks from indi-
viduals who previously experienced multiple side efiFects from
their medication or whose doctors told them there was nothing
more that could be done for them, that they would have to learn to
live with the pain.
MSM offers a natural way to reduce pain and inflammation
without serious side effects. It may even deliver as much or even
more relief as some of the standard painkillers—it just doesn't
work as fast. (That's because MSM is not a drug; it is a nutritional
supplement.) But you will often begin to experience noticeable
easing of pain and discomfort, along with more energy, and in
general feel better, within days.
The good news is that MSM is readily available as an inexpen-
sive nutritional supplement in health food stores, drugstores, and
through many health practitioners and other accessible outlets.
You can purchase it in capsule form to take with a meal as you
would any vitamin supplement or use it in crystal form and mix in
a drink. You can also buy it as a cream, lotion, or gel and apply it

Amazing MSM 9
directly to your skin for additional relief from pain and inflamma-
tion. You don't need a prescription. It is safe for adults and chil-
dren alike.
Don't confuse MSM with MSG—monosodium glutamate.
MSG is a taste-enhancing agent that frequently causes allergic
reactions known as "the Chinese Restaurant syndrome." After
many thousands of cases we haven't heard of MSM producing
allergic reactions.
In Chapter 3, we tell you how to use MSM and maximize your
personal experience of natural pain relief. We give you the practi-
cal information on how much to take and answer commonly asked
questions about the supplement.
Where Has MSM Been
Until Now?
You may be wondering that if MSM is so good why haven't you
heard about it before? Until now, there has been little written
about it except for a few booklets and articles in nutritional and
veterinarian publications. This book is the first comprehensive
report on MSM.
Veterinarians have used MSM for more than fifteen years ever
since an article on it appeared in an equine journal in the early
1980s. Use by humans goes back nearly twenty years, when one of
us (Jacob) began recommending it for patients who came to the
world-famous DMSO Clinic at the Oregon Health Sciences Uni-
versity in Portland. MSM was developed from the medical experi-
ence with DMSO—dimethyl sulfoxide. You probably have heard
of DMSO and may possibly have used it. DMSO is a well-known
therapeutic agent derived from trees. MSM is made from DMSO.
DMSO is widely used around the world for relief of arthritis,
muscle and skeletal disorders, acute head and spinal cord trauma,
athletic injuries, and other conditions. In the U.S., it is approved
by the FDA for the treatment of interstitial cystitis, a painful
inflammatory disorder of the bladder.
MSM delivers many of the remarkable healing properties of

DMSO—but without the annoying odor of DMSO. Thousands of
people, young and old, with various chronic pain conditions, have
come to the Portland clinic, often as a last resort because medical
treatments weren't working, and have been helped with MSM. It
was among such seriously-ill people that the benefits of MSM
were first observed.
With interest in alternative medicine and natural remedies
soaring, MSM has been brought out of its relatively limited clini-
cal confines into the mainstream of nutritional supplement users.
Now its remarkable benefits are being enjoyed by many people
interested in natural relief from pain, with no side effects.
MSM is a source of sulfur, a mineral element critical to the
normal function and structure of the body. Sulfur is a raw material
for the protein and connective tissue that make up our body mass,
for enzymes that conduct countless chemical reactions, and for
powerful natural compounds that protect us against toxicity and
harmful oxidative stress. Sulfur also has a long history of healing
but it has been overlooked in our current fascination with vita-
mins and minerals. When asked to think of minerals important
for health, most people know that calcium is good for their bones,
that iron is important for their blood, that zinc is needed by the
prostate. But rarely does anyone mention sulfur.
In the next chapter we will look at the MSM's "pedigree" and
its connection to DMSO and sulfur.
Relief versus Cure
Although much of the scientific fine print relating to MSM's pre-
cise healing mechanisms in the body still needs to be determined,
we know from clinical experience that it provides major pain relief
through the following actions:
• The inhibition of pain impulses along nerve fibers
• Lessening of inflammation
• Increasing of blood supply

Amazing MSM
Reduction of muscle spasm
Softening of scar tissue
In Chapter 4 we spell out in detail MSM's effect on pain
and then in Chapter 5 show how it reduces inflammation.
It is our hope that doctors who read this book will consider
MSM as an adjunct to their therapies for pain, inflammation, and
allergic conditions. MSM can be used with any standard medica-
tion without problem. Often patients can reduce and sometimes
even discontinue their prescriptions because of MSM's healing
effects. But any such modification of medication should be done
only under the guidance of a physician. Do not discontinue any
prescription without consulting your doctor.
More and more people are using MSM and experiencing heal-
ing results similar to what we see in our medical practices. We fre-
quently hear people say, "I'm cured!" Indeed, the effects of MSM
are very often quite amazing. It can relieve many painful condi-
tions. Nevertheless, it won't "cure" an illness such as arthritis or
lupus. The dictionary defines cure as an elimination of disease.
MSM doesn't do that. We don't cure diabetes with insulin. We
control it. If we stop the insulin, the diabetic could die. When you
think about it, we really don't cure very much at all in medicine
and perhaps we shouldn't even use the word. What MSM does is
this: It serves as a natural remedy to relieve the pain, inflamma-
tion, and many symptoms of illness. Generally, it provides relief
for as long as you take it, although sometimes health problems
don't return even if you stop taking MSM.
Many people experience rapid relief after starting MSM. We
have often heard the statement, "Within a few days my pain was
gone." You may indeed experience relief within a few days, but for
the very serious chronic conditions we treat in our medical prac-
tices we usually see improvement occurring gradually.
Whether relief is fast or slow, this nutritional supplement has
real potential to make a significant impact on the quality of life.
Some people, of course, may not derive any benefit at all.

How Word Spreads
about MSM
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent by pharmaceutical com-
panies to research and then advertise their patented medical drugs
to physicians and consumers. No such bankroll exists for nutri-
tional supplements. That's because nutritional supplements,
based on vitamins, minerals, herbs, and natural substances such as
MSM, are not patentable.
The major impetus behind MSM's growing popularity is
word of mouth. As people experience the healing benefits of
MSM, we find they often become enthusiastic emissaries eager to
tell family members and friends who have pain problems. One
such example is Father Sam, a 46-year-old parish priest in rural
Pennsylvania. An avid jogger who has also enjoyed lifting weights
in the past, he suffered two sports injuries that left him with a bad
shoulder and bad knees.
As he tells it, "A few years ago I began to experience morning
pain in both knees, and particularly my right knee, which I had
injured during a softball game years before. The pain increased,
and with it stiffness and fatigue in my legs. The situation reached
the point where my knees were so stiff in the morning that I could
hardly walk. In order to go down the steps from the sleeping quar-
ters in our rectory to the main floor, I could move only very slowly,
dragging one foot in front of the other."
To go along with his knee pain. Father Sam has a bad shoul-
der. He overdid it weight lifting about ten years ago.
"I tore tissue in the shoulder or damaged the rotator cuff some
way and started to feel the hurt the day after," he says. "The pain
lasted for some time and then gradually went away. But three or
four years ago the pain returned as arthritis or bursitis connected
to the injury. Now it was worse than before, and sometimes the
pain would keep me up at night for hours. I would take Tylenol
and the pain would go away. But some nights the Tylenol didn't
help at all."

Amazing MSM 13
Father Sam needed relief. A friend sent him a bottle of MSM
and said it might help. It did. Soon after he started taking the
MSM, the pain and fatigue in his legs disappeared. The morning
stiffness vanished. The pain in his shoulder was gone.
Father Sam is back out in full force on the backroads of central
Pennsylvania churning out his four or five miles a day and upward
of thirty miles a week, running, as he says, "for the joy of it." He is
pain-free as long as he remembers to take the MSM. "When you
start to feel better you have a tendency to forget," he says. "If I
don't take the MSM for a few days, the pain starts to return. So
now I make MSM part of my daily routine—twice a day with
orange juice."
Impressed by his positive experience with MSM, Father Sam
sent a bottle of MSM capsules to his mother, who suffers from
arthritis in the knees. "She had been complaining about the pain
for a year," he says. The condition was preventing her from kneel-
ing in church. Because of the pain, she would simply go to her seat
without genuflecting. "My mother started taking the pills and
also applied an MSM lotion to her knees. Within two or three
months, much of her pain was gone and she was able to kneel
again in church. She hasn't complained about pain since."
One of the priest's parishioners is Ruth Ann Hubler, the post-
mistress of AUport, Pennsylvania. She heard him talking one day
about how MSM had helped his pain.
"For years I have had arthritis that is particularly bad in my
hands," says Hubler. "My fingers were swollen and crooked from
the arthritis and hurt from just bending them. I had to have my
anniversary ring enlarged so I could wear it. Anytime I bumped
my hands into something I would feel the pain. My daily routine
of sorting mail into recipients' post office boxes had become very
painful because I would always bump my hand against the boxes
as I sorted the mail.
"Father Sam suggested I try the same lotion and pills he had
used. It was probably a month or so and my hands didn't hurt
nearly as much and the swelling had gone down a lot. It's been
about a year and now I have no pain at all. The swelling is much

less. I have no problems except that now my anniversary ring is
loose!"
In Part Two of the book we will describe how MSM relieves
common problems such as arthritis, back and muscle pain,
headaches, fibromyalgia, and tendinitis. Then, in Part Three, we
will discuss MSM's equally amazing effect on allergies.
MSM and Allergies
Many people like Father Sam who take MSM to relieve pain often
experience an additional, and unexpected, benefit: relief from
allergic symptoms.
"Every year without fail, ever since I was a boy, I endured a
perpetually runny nose and nonstop sneezing during pollen sea-
son," he says. "It used to be so bad that I had to have allergy
shots."
As an adult, he relied on Sinutab, an over-the-counter decon-
gestant for sinus and allergy relief. "I would always be sure to take
my Sinutab before Sunday masses," he says. "Sunday morning was
of particular concern. I could deal with the allergies more easily
during the week because there would be so few people coming to
Mass. But on Sundays I have three Masses that are well attended. I
didn't want to have a sneezing attack in the middle. Just in case of
trouble I had two or three handkerchiefs stuffed in my pockets.
The medication usually got me through, but now and then I had
to pull out a handkerchief. Without the medication it would have
been a disaster."
One evening in the late spring of 1998, Father Sam happened
to be watching a television newscast and heard a reporter say the
current allergy season was one of the worst in many years. As he
heard the report he realized he hadn't been taking his allergy med-
ication and hadn't experienced any symptoms.
"I had totally forgotten about how bad my allergies had been.
It dawned on me that here I was in the middle of this bad pollen
season not taking the medication and yet I wasn't having any
problems," he says. "I was astonished."

Amazing MSM 15
Father Sam sailed through the 1998 allergy season on MSM
only.
The parish priest's experience is not uncommon. People who
take MSM consistently report relief from pain and allergies. A
mechanic suffered from nose and throat symptoms as a result of
pollen that rained down on him from the underside of cars as he
worked beneath the vehicles. After taking MSM for a pain prob-
lem, he noticed that his pollen allergy had cleared.
MSM offers prompt and powerful relief of pollen allergies,
commonly called hay fever—a major seasonal ordeal for some 35
million Americans. MSM may perhaps be as effective as any anti-
histamine on the market.
Two of the authors of this book (Jacob and Lawrence) have
personally experienced the antiallergy benefits of MSM. Both have
been plagued by pollen allergies and have taken many medica-
tions and natural remedies to counteract allergy symptoms. None
has worked as well as MSM.
MSM is a surprising supplement. When you start taking it, you
may notice a number of good things happening in your life in
addition to pain and allergy relief: more energy; cosmetic benefits
such as softer skin, thicker hair, stronger nails; decreased scar tis-
sue; and relief of constipation. In Appendix A we discuss these
additional benefits. Finally, in Appendix B, we examine the mar-
keting claims being made about MSM and point out a number of
inaccuracies.
In the coming years, with wider and wider usage, more of the
healing potential of MSM will be revealed. At this point, based on
our clinical experience, we believe that such healing potential may
be as great, if not greater, than any other nutritional supplement,
and we feel we are only beginning to scratch the surface of its mul-
tiple uses. In this book we are covering the major effects known to
us. There are no doubt many more benefits that people will dis-
cover as they take MSM and use it regularly.
When all the facts are in, and controlled clinical studies are
conducted, MSM may become known as one of the great nutri-

i6 The Miracle of MSM
tional discoveries of the twentieth century. Still, it is not a
panacea. It has its limitations and works at its own speed, which
can be quick in some people and slower in others. This book will
tell you what to expect from MSM—which is a lot—and what not
to expect.

Chapter Two
Roots of MSM-
The DMSO Connection
Dr. Stanley Jacob Explains:
^o understand MSM, we need first to understand DMSO. To
understand DMSO, we turn the clock back to March 1980, when I
appeared on the CBS television show 60 Minutes with Sandy Sher-
rick, a southern CaHfornia housewife. Sherrick had suffered severe
chronic whiplash and nerve damage in an automobile accident
two years before.
"No pain killer, no therapy, no doctor, it seemed, could help,"
the show's host Mike Wallace said.
"Oh, the pain was extremely bad. I was to the point where I
cried continuously. I did not cook meals. I did not clean. I barely
got myself dressed," Sherrick replied.
That was before she came to my Portland clinic for DMSO
intravenous treatments—with the cameras of 60 Minutes rolling
to record the progress. By the third day, the program producer
observed that Sherrick was feeling better.
"Well, I didn't have to take any more medicine," said Sher-
rick, who had been taking pain medication continually up until
then.

i8 The Miracle of MSM
Two months after her treatment, Wallace and his camera crew
revisited Sherrick at her home. "The pain is gone," she told them.
The pain is totally, completely gone from my neck."
"You're serious," said Wallace.
"I'm telling the truth, the honest-to-God truth," said Sher-
rick, and added that she was now doing housework, driving, and
in general, functioning quite normally.
Sandy Sherrick, in 1998, is still pain-free, which is unusual
when you consider the severity of her injury.
After the 60 Minutes program, the medical school where my
clinic is located was inundated with telephone calls. During the
following week, one hundred thousand calls flooded and disabled
the school's telephone communication system. The phone in my
office rang nonstop. In the year that followed, more than 20 mil-
lion Americans spent an estimated $ I billion buying DMSO and
applying it to their skin for pain relief. They bought it from
health food stores, grocer)' stores, pharmacies, department stores,
hobby shops, veterinarians, and even gas stations. Entrepreneurs
sold it from home.
The remarkable agent that had attained celebrity status
overnight in 1980 was dimethyl sulfoxide—DMSO—a substance
I had been working with in my clinic for more than fifteen years.
This naturally occurring sulfur compound was first synthe-
sized a hundred and thirty years ago by a Russian chemist. For
nearly a hundred years, it remained a laboratory obscurity. A
few chemists published papers on its solvent properties, but it
attracted little commercial or industrial interest. A solvent is a
compound that dissolves a solid substance into a liquid. Put sugar
into coffee, for instance, and the coffee acts as a solvent, dissolving
the sugar. Solvents are widely used in industry and chemistry.
In the late 1950s, I was involved in research on kidney trans-
plantation technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. I had developed methods to freeze kidneys safely
without the organs becoming physically damaged. This was con-
sidered a step forward in technology. Until this time, however, the
function ot the trozen kidneys was still compromised in the

Roots of MSM—The DMSO Connection 19
process, making them unusable as transplants. Transplantation
technology was still rather primitive then.
Around this time I relocated to Portland to head up trans-
plantation research at the University of Oregon Medical School.
During my investigations I encountered a scientific paper written
by a British scientist named Lovelock about various chemical
compounds that permitted freezing red blood cells "alive." One of
the compounds was DMSO. I learned that the compound was
being produced by Crown-Zellerbach Corporation, a large paper-
making concern in adjacent Washington State.
The company made DMSO from lignin, an organic cement-
like substance that binds wood fiber together. The first step in the
process was extracting dimethyl sulfide (DMS) from the lignin,
which was then oxygenated to form DMSO. The company was
exploring the solvent potential of DMSO for industrial use.
I contacted Zellerbach and their chemist in charge of DMSO
research, Robert Herschler. He provided me with a supply of
DMSO and shared his experiences with the compound. We soon
began working together in research activities.
Herschler had made the observation that in plants and trees
DMSO tended to move through tissues and could carry other
materials with it. He was interested in knowing if it could do the
same in animals. We found that it did, which made it a quite
intriguing compound with the potential to carry medication
through the skin and into the body. The DMSO also demonstrated
potent pain-reduction and anti-inflammatory properties for peo-
ple. When applied to the skin over an acute ankle sprain or a burn,
for instance, one could see the swelling resolve within an hour.
As research continued, I found that it indeed had many med-
ical properties. DMSO was a diuretic. It had antibacterial effects
and even rendered resistant bacteria vulnerable to the same antibi-
otics to which they had previously been resistant.
With regard to medical transplantation, my original interest
in DMSO, the compound turned out to be valuable as a cryopro-
tective agent—that is, as a preservative for transplantation-bound
frozen bone marrow, platelets, embryos, ova, and sperm cells.

Today it is used globally for this purpose. It did not, however, pre-
serve an organ as large as a kidney.
Patients treated in my clinic for pain conditions began spread-
ing the word throughout the Portland area about a new "Oregon
wonder drug." The DMSO was impressively relieving the pain of
people with severe, unresolved arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis, and
many other conditions.
I reported the development for the first time in 1963 at a
meeting of the American College of Surgeons. Soon articles began
appearing in newspapers, including a front-page article in The
New York Times describing DMSO as "the most exciting thing in
medicine." The uproar was huge. DMSO was suddenly being
called a revolution in medicine equivalent to the development of
penicillin. Major drug firms came knocking on my door.
The pharmaceutical companies, of course, had their own
motives. They were primarily interested in DMSO as a through-
the-skin carrier of their own patented medicines. DMSO appeared
to be an unparalleled transporter, a highly prized property
enabling a drug to enter the bloodstream through the skin and
thus bypass the digestive tract where many adverse reactions occur.
By 1965, more than 1,500 studies had been conducted,
involving about 100,000 patients, indicating a prescriptive role
for a host of problems, primarily musculoskeletal inflammatory
conditions. However, during that year, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), responsible for approving new drugs,
temporarily stopped its consideration of medical uses for DMSO
because of the flood of studies it had received and also out of fear of
a Thalidomide-like nightmare occurring in the United States.
Thalidomide, a sedative drug widely used in Europe, had just
been discovered to cause serious deformities of the fetus when
taken during pregnancy. The agency was saying "no" to every-
thing, DMSO included. The big companies subsequently lost
interest in DMSO.
Without the clout and deep pockets of the pharmaceutical
industry, our attempt to win approval for DMSO was an uphill
struggle. In 1970, we managed to obtain approval for veterinary
usage in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. Veterinarians

Roots of MSM^The DMSO Connection 21
still use it for this purpose on both large and small animals. My
hope was that positive results in animals would create momentum
for approval for use by humans.
In 1978, the FDA finally approved DMSO as a prescriptive
treatment for interstitial cystitis, a painful, inflammatory condi-
tion of the bladder affecting a half-million women. To this day,
interstitial cystitis remains the only disorder for which DMSO
is approved by the FDA, despite numerous congressional hear-
ings recommending wider application. Among athletes, DMSO
became particularly popular to speed the healing of typical mus-
cle, ligament, and tendon injuries . . . and is still widely used for
that purpose. A special law in the state of Oregon has allowed me
to use it for many other conditions—and I have thus been able to
help many patients with a variety of severe disorders and muscu-
loskeletal conditions.
In 1973, DMSO became prescriptive in the former Soviet
Union. It continues to be prescribed there for an estimated 30
million patients annually with many painful conditions such as
lupus, scleroderma, arthritis, and diabetic ulcerations. Globally,
DMSO is used in about 125 countries, including Canada, Great
Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. I estimate that worldwide it
has helped more than a half-billion patients to date. It is safer, less
expensive, and at least as effective for a variety of problems for
which we presently use other less-effective and more costly treat-
ments. DMSO has been the subject of more than 55,000 studies
worldwide.
DMSO is not really a drug. It is more like a multi-functional
"therapeutic principle"—an agent with hundreds of properties
and applications in the body.
DMSO is safe, a substance of extraordinarily low toxicity,
without a single documented death attributed to it. Occasionally
a patient is allergic to it. Some individuals who have used
industrial-quality DMSO regularly on their skin over a long
period of time have reported some minor damage to the skin. The
most common side effect, if you want to call it that, is of the nui-
sance variety—the odor. No matter how DMSO is given
—
whether intravenously, nasally, orally, instilled into the bladder,

under the skin, through the skin, in the muscle, through every
conceivable port of entry into the body—it produces a distinctive
fish- or oyster-like odor and taste in the mouth. DMSO is widely
used internationally to reduce inflammation and carry critical
medications through the skin in life-and-death trauma situations.
For such short-term applications the odor factor is irrelevant. But
used long term for a chronic condition, such as arthritis, the odor
becomes bothersome enough so that many people stop taking it.
Enter MSM
In the late 1970s, Robert Herschler suggested studying the prop-
erties of DMSO metabolites. Along with other members of the
faculty at Oregon Health Sciences University, we began to look at
dimethyl sulfone, DMSO^—another scientific name for MSM
—
which is the major metabolite of DMSO.
When DMSO enters the body approximately 1 5 percent of it
is converted to MSM, its major breakdown component. That
means the body attaches an oxygen atom to a portion of the
DMSO molecules and they become DMSO2—or MSM. A smaller
percentage of DMSO is converted to DMS—dimethyl sulfide.
DMS is responsible for producing the odor as well as any skin irri-
tation that may occur. MSM does not produce the DMSO odor.
When taken orally or topically, no part of it is converted to DMS.
From prior research, we knew MSM remains in the body
longer than DMSO. In a 1967 study, conducted at Merck Sharp &
Dohme Research Laboratories, excretion through the urine of
orally administered DMSO was complete after 120 hours,
"whereas DMSO2 excretion was much more prolonged, lasting
until 480 hours or beyond." The researchers suggested that one
reason for the longer retention in the body was "possibly more
extensive tissue binding." Our observations over the years agree
with this assessment. Major DMSO researchers, in fact, have theo-
rized that many of the benefits of DMSO are due to the long-
lasting influences of the DMSO fraction converted to MSM.
As I began using MSM with patients, I found it produced

Roots of MSM^The DMSO Connection 23
many—but not all—of the DMSO effects. I consider the follow-
ing to be MSM's most significant actions:
• It is an analgesic. It relieves pain.
• It reduces inflammation.
• It passes through cellular membranes of the body, includ-
ing the skin.
• It dilates blood vessels (vasodilation) and increases blood
flow.
• It is a cholinesterase inhibitor. Cholinsterase is an enzyme
that stops excessive passage of nerve impulses from one
nerve cell to another. I have seen MSM provide swift relief
of constipation associated with aging. By blocking the
action of cholinesterase, MSM helps restore normal bowel
activity (peristalsis).
•• It reduces muscle spasm. Injury or inflammation com-
monly cause spasm in a muscle or group of muscles. Spasm
involves a sudden contraction, which is followed by pain
and interference with function. Spasm can be felt by a
physician's touch or measured with electromyography. If
you apply an MSM gel or cream to an affected area and
then feel the muscle again later, or measure it electrically,
the muscle is looser, the area less tender. MSM taken orally
produces a muscle-relaxing effect.
• It alters the crosslinking process in collagen, thus reducing
scar tissue. Crosslinking is the process in which new struc-
tural proteins are knitted to existing healthy tissue at the
sites of surgical incisions or traumatic damage in the body.
• It has antiparasitic properties, particularly for giardia, a
protozoan parasite that causes diarrhea.
• It has an immune normalizing effect, as observed in some
autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,
and scleroderma.

One of the factors that set both DMSO and MSM apart is that
they are small molecules. DMSO tips the scales at a molecular
weight of 78; MSM, 94. By chemistry standards, they are feather-
weight molecules. They mimic water in this respect. Water has a
very low molecular weight and passes through tissue. DMSO and
MSM pass through the skin and into the tissue below. Just like
DMSO, MSM is very useful when employed as a topical gel,
cream, or lotion to help in the relief of local pain and inflamma-
tion. Unlike DMSO, however, MSM cannot transport medication
with it.
Another difference between the two compounds is that
DMSO is a proven and powerful free-radical scavenger, that is, an
antioxidant, whereas MSM's antioxidant significance at this point
is unclear. Free radicals are unstable molecular fragments that
launch an oxidative attack on DNA, cell membranes, enzymes,
and proteins, disrupting normal cellular activities and trigger the
inflammatory process. Such cumulative oxidative damage is simi-
lar to the rusting of metal and contributes to premature aging and
the development of serious disease. Every disease known to med-
ical science is associated with an increased activity of free radicals.
One of the first things we set out to learn about MSM was its
safety. In long-term toxicity trials with laboratory animals we
found no toxic effects with oral doses of 8 grams per kilogram (2.2
pounds) of body weight. Most people take from 2 to 8 grams total
as a daily supplement.
To determine the lethal dose of MSM, or of any substance, we
used a standard test known as LD-50. LD stands for lethal dose.
The number 50 refers to the amount of the substance required
that would result in the death of half the number of laboratory
animals used in the test. For MSM, the findings determined that
the LD-50 was more than 20 grams for each kilogram of body
weight. To put that into perspective, the LD-50 of common table
salt you use for cooking is 2.5 to 3 grams per kilogram of weight.
MSM thus rates as one of the least toxic substances in biology and
medicine. It compares to water, which has an LD-50 rating also
greater than 20 grams per kilogram of weight.
In follow-up experiments with human volunteers, we found

no toxic effects at intake levels of up to 1 gram per kilogram
of body weight per day for 30 days. That means about 68 grams
for an average 150-pound person. A few patients have taken
more than 100 grams orally of MSM daily without any side
effects. But these were extremely unusual cases involving very sick
patients under my personal care. Do not take that much on your
own. Please refer to Chapter 3 for details on how much MSM to
take.
In a paper presented to the New York Academy of Sciences in
1982, Herschler and I described the actions, benefits, and nontox-
icity of MSM for the first time. In the ensuing years, I continued
to use MSM with great success in my clinic and found that it was
well-tolerated and provided wonderful relief for people with pain,
inflammation, constipation, and other common problems. Veteri-
narians became interested in MSM and found it beneficial for
horses and dogs suffering from arthritis and lameness. Many peo-
ple, seeing the benefits for their animals, started buying MSM
from veterinarians and tack shops and using it themselves. Word
spread over the years—first from patients and then from animal
owners. Finally, with the explosion of interest in alternative medi-
cine and natural remedies that has occurred during this decade, a
number of manufacturers saw the promise of MSM as a nutritional
supplement and began marketing it. Now, MSM has the potential
to join the growing array of natural substances such as melatonin
and St. John's Wort that can be used by a broad number of people
to reduce common health problems.
MSM in Nature
In its natural state MSM is an inconspicuous sulfur molecule
found in the atmosphere, in plants, animals, and the human body.
Chemically, it consists of two hydrocarbon units (groups of hydro-
gen and carbon atoms) attached to a unit with one sulfur and two
oxygen atoms. The molecule is one-third sulfur by weight.
Atmospheric chemists describe the molecule as a minor oxi-
dation product in an oceanic sulfur cycle that begins with marine

algae. These ocean organisms, called phytoplankton, release sulfur
compounds known as dimethylsulfonium salts. The salts, in turn,
are transformed in the ocean water into a volatile compound
—
dimethylsulfide (DMS)—which escapes as a gas from watery
depths and rises into the atmosphere. There, the DMS undergoes
photochemical oxidation and is converted to sulfur compounds,
mostly sulfates, and, in part, to DMSO^ (MSM) as well as
dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), the closest relative of MSM. These
compounds are absorbed in tiny droplets called aerosols that float
around the atmosphere and are returned to the surface of the ocean
with rainwater.
On land, a number of scientific analyses over the years have
found MSM present naturally in animal tissue, food, and in the
human body. Researchers first discovered the molecule more than
fifty years ago in the blood, adrenal glands, and milk of cows. It
was also found to be present in horses and rabbits and assumably is
there in other species.
Later, in a 1982 analysis by the Crown-Zellerbach Company,
milk was found to contain between 2 and 6 parts per million of
MSM. That may not seem like much but the quantity is higher
than the level of some other better-known minerals, such as man-
ganese and selenium. Zinc, by comparison, weighs in at 8.6 parts
per million in milk. Coffee contains about 1.5 parts of MSM per
million, and tea somewhat less. Green vegetables and other foods
have small traces of MSM.
MSM's presence in the human body was first reported during
the 1960s, when a laboratory analysis of the urine of men, women,
and children found that 4 to 1 1 milligrams of MSM was excreted
over a twenty-four-hour period. Then in the late 1980s, a
researcher at a major German pharmaceutical company found that
MSM is present in human plasma. Plasma is the liquid part of
blood. Through a gas chromatography technique, W. Martin of
Pharmakin Gmbh of Ulm detected a "significant concentration"
of MSM among the one hundred samples of plasma he examined.
He found the equivalent of about 4 milligrams of MSM in the
plasma of an average-size adult.
So far, researchers have not adequately been able to explain the

presence of MSM other than that it comes from food sources
and/or is the result of a natural chain of biochemical reactions. Its
precise role is not known.
Through other research we have learned that MSM is utilized
inside the body. This was first demonstrated in animal studies
conducted by Virginia Richmond of the Pacific Northwest
Research Foundation in Seattle and reported in the journal Life
Sciences in 1986. In her experiments, she fed MSM with radioactive
sulfur in it to guinea pigs. Radioactively "labeled" elements are
used in scientific research to track the utilization of substances in
the body. A subsequent analysis of serum proteins revealed that a
small amount of the MSM sulfur had been taken up by two of the
body's sulfur amino acids, methionine and cysteine.
Three studies conducted with laboratory mice at the Oregon
Health Sciences University and Ohio State University showed
that supplemental MSM was absorbed by laboratory mice and sig-
nificantly delayed the onset of cancer created under experimental
conditions. Other promising animal studies suggested that MSM
may improve autoimmune diseases in which the body's own
immune system becomes deranged and starts to attack its own tis-
sue. Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are two of the better-known
autoimmune diseases. In these experiments, researchers found
they could substantially prolong the lifespan of certain breeds of
mice prone to such abnormalities by adding MSM to their drink-
ing water. The rodents used in these trials were particularly sus-
ceptible to autoimmune illness.
As practicing physicians, our ability to personally conduct
rigorous scientific research is limited. Our focus is treating
patients. Yet when each of us carried out independent studies in
our individual clinics on patients suffering from the severe pain
of degenerative arthritis, we reached the same conclusion
—
pronounced relief of pain.
These, and other results we have seen among patients, are
impressive. The studies to date are tantalizing but preliminary.
More are needed. Hopefully, this book will promote further
research necessary to understand better this unique and natural
substance that perpetuates a long sulfur healing tradition.

Sulfur in Your Body and in the
Healing Tradition
A "healing" of sorts occurred in biblical times when brimstone,
the old name for sulfur, rained down from heaven to extinguish
the sin spots of Sodom and Gomorrah. What form of brimstone
rained down nobody knows, but we do know that sulfur spews out
of volcanoes and coal furnaces to pollute the air as sulfur dioxide.
It is one of the very few minerals that are combustible.
Four thousand years ago, the Egyptians burned the yellow
powder of sulfur to ward off bad spirits. Throughout the ages
since, man has put sulfur to varied but history-altering use. The
Chinese discovered gunpowder by mixing sulfur and saltpeter,
thus opening a new dimension in our ability to kill one another.
In Latin, it was called solferrein, meaning "carrying the sun," a
reference to the yellow color of the mineral—a reflection of the
sun.
In our modern age, sulfur compounds have made huge eco-
nomic contributions. As Ryan Huxtable of the University of Ari-
zona noted in his 1986 textbook Biochemistry of Sulfur (Plenum
Press), "The industrialized world rolls on tires vulcanized with
sulfur and more sulfuric acid is manufactured than any other
chemical." Sulfur compounds are utilized for fertilizers, fungi-
cides, fumigants, cellophane, rayon, nylon fibers, textiles, dyes,
gasoline, steel, pulp for paper and bleaching of dried fruits, just to
name a few of its many applications.
In plants, sulfur is found mostly in protein and also in com-
pounds that give certain plants their famous odors—onions, gar-
lic, horseradish, and cabbage, for instance. Sulfur, in fact, is fairly
synonymous with smells.
"Some, such as those (compounds) present in skunk odor and
flatulence, we find repellent," wrote Huxtable. "Others, such as
those found in truffles, coffee and asparagus, the majority of
us find attractive. Others, again, exemplified by the sulfur-
containing constituents of garlic and onions, we may at times find
attractive, and on other occasions, distasteful." The connection of

sulfur with odors and volcanoes, adds Huxtable, has bestowed the
mineral with a "Mephistophelean reputation that masks its funda-
mental importance in biological processes."
Sulfur is not just around us, but inside us as well. Our body
puts sulfur to great use. It's an integral part of what makes us and
what makes us tick. Sulfur is the eighth most abundant element
in all living organisms. In our bodies, it forms part of virtually all
tissues, especially those highest in protein, such as red blood cells,
muscles, skin, and hair.
Ever burned a strand of hair in an open flame and noticed the
odor? That's the smell of sulfur. Your hair contains a lot of sulfur.
So do your nails and skin. One of the most frequent comments we
hear from people, particularly women who are taking MSM, is
that their hair and nails have become stronger. This is yet another
indication that the sulfur in MSM is biologically active and is
being absorbed and utilized by the body.
When you weigh yourself, about 1 percent of the number you
read on the scale is sulfur. In all fairness, if you're overweight,
don't blame it on sulfur. Sulfur isn't fattening. Neither is MSM,
we should hasten to add.
Sulfur is a major ingredient of important amino acids—the
building blocks of proteins. Proteins are the primary constituents
of enzymes, hormones, antibodies, and the countless biochemical
activities continually going on in the body. Proteins also provide
the structural raw material of muscles, bones, hair, teeth, blood,
brains, skin, and the other organs of the body. If you don't get
enough protein, you suffer all over. In children, deficiency retards
growth. In adults, it shows up as chronic fatigue, mental depres-
sion, weakness, poor resistance to infection, and slow healing from
wounds or disease.
Molecules of protein are comprised of twenty-four amino
acids, and because of the many ways these amino acids can com-
bine to form a protein, there are endless numbers of different pro-
teins. Among the amino acids is a group known as the sulfur
amino acids, which means that these compounds contain sulfur.
Foremost among them are methionine and cysteine.
Methionine is an essential amino acid, meaning you must get

it in the food you eat. Your body doesn't make it, as it does many
other amino acids. Methionine has several main roles. Primary
among them is methylation, a fundamental process that triggers
biochemical changes throughout the body, altering the structure
and function of hormones as well as other proteins and amino
acids.
Cysteine is not an essential amino acid. Your body makes it
from methionine. But it performs big chores in the body, includ-
ing protection of sensitive tissue from excess oxidation that causes
disease and premature aging. Cysteine is the key ingredient in
glutathione, a molecular "superman" found in virtually all living
cells. It is a primary antioxidant and detoxifying agent in the
body. Among other things, it helps the body rid itself of some car-
cinogens and hazardous chemicals.
The body uses methionine and cysteine also to form such
essential compounds as insulin, which regulates carbohydrate
metabolism, and heparin, an anticoagulant. Sulfur amino acids are
also involved as essential players in the energy metabolism that
takes place in the mitochondria—the "power plants" inside every
cell. Sulfur is also found in thiamine and biotin. These two impor-
tant B complex vitamins are also essential for energy production.
Sulfur plays an important role in healthy skin, cartilage, and con-
nective tissue and is vital to healing wounds. Sulfate, a more oxi-
dized form of sulfur, is used by the liver to detoxify substances,
make them more water-soluble, and prepare them biochemically
for excretion by the kidneys.
Thus, sulfur participates in many basic structural and func-
tional aspects of your being. More than just a raw material, it con-
tributes to the process of life. It is involved in the building up of
our body substance, the energy that sustains our physical activity,
and the neutralization of oxidants and toxins that can destroy our
health from within.
From a healing perspective, there is something very special
about sulfur. No matter where you travel—near or far—chances
are you'll find a sulfur hot spring with a healing tradition or mys-
tique attached to it.
In ancient times, Agamemnon, leader of the Greek states in

the Trojan Wars, is said to have brought his wounded soldiers to
the Balcova hot springs near Izmir, in Turkey. To this day, the
"Baths of Agamemnon," as they are called, are recommended for
rheumatic diseases, digestive disorders, and post-operative condi-
tions.
Mozart and Beethoven frequented a sulfur spring at Baden,
near Vienna. In Italy, the elegant Salsomaggiore sulfur baths have
attracted the likes of the wife of Napoleon I, Enrico Caruso, and
Luciano Pavarotti.
On St. Lucia in the West Indies, simmering sulfur water that
"fills the air with an odor of rotting eggs" cascades down from
Soufriere volcano into baths below. Louis XVI, it is said, recom-
mended the restorative waters to rejuvenate his tired troops.
In Japan, the Harazuru Sulfur Springs in Fukuoka Prefecture
is an all-year facility "which works well for rheumatism and neu-
ralgia," according to the local promoters.
Hot Springs, Montana, beckons visitors to its healing "Big
Medicine" waters, discovered by Native American tribes, and said
to produce relaxation and relief from arthritis, skin diseases, stom-
ach ulcers, high blood pressure, and many other conditions.
The medical literature contains past references to the use of
sulfur-rich baths for healing purposes, particularly arthritis.
Although sulfur baths still attract many patients, their popularity
as a primary curative treatment has waned with the advent of
modern medical methods.
In the ageless healing tradition of sulfur, one cannot ignore
garlic, perhaps the most famous—and oldest—of all sulfur medic-
inals. John Heinerman, Ph.D., in his book The Healing Benefits of
Garlic (Keats Publishing), traces the use of garlic for healing back
some 4,300 years to the Sumerian civilization of the Euphrates
River Valley—now Iraq. According to Sumerian tablets excavated
in the 1930s, garlic was used by these ancient people for fevers,
loose bowels, inflammation, strained muscles, pulled ligaments,
parasites, and as a general tonic. Many ancient cultures, Heiner-
man wrote, "considered garlic to be one of the most important
spices for feeding and healing the human body."
In a much later era, Louis Pasteur discovered that garlic

destroyed harmful bacteria. And still later, Albert Schweitzer used
garlic compounds to treat amoebic dysentery. Researchers have
found at least 100 sulfur compounds in garlic and have validated
many of its folk medicine applications.
Organic sulfur compounds are not exclusive to garlic. You
can, as a matter of fact, tell which foods and herbs are high in sul-
fur content by their odor. "Foods that have a distinct smell when
they're cooked (such as cabbage), or make your eyes water when
cut (such as onions), or grab your taste buds by their roots with an
unmistakable pungency (like horseradish), have an abundance of
sulfur," wrote Heinerman. Interestingly, he noted that foods like
cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, water-
cress, leeks, onion, radish, cauliflower, and horseradish—all
sulfur-bearing foods—have properties that have been demon-
strated in scientific studies to inhibit certain types of experimen-
tally induced cancers.
"The purifying and beneficial properties of sulflir have been
known for millennia," wrote Stephen C. Mitchell, M.D., editor of
Biological Interactions of Sulfur Compounds (Taylor & Francis), and
"probably a quarter of pharmaceutical products presently used
contain sulfur." Among the most famous of them are penicillin
and cephalosporin antibiotics.
Are You Sulfur—
or MSM—Deficient?
Many users of MSM believe the supplement remedies a sulfur defi-
ciency in the body. Sulfur is a mineral nutrient found in food, and
minerals are frequently deficient in the Western diet with serious
consequences to health. Magnesium and zinc are two leading
examples of commonly deficient minerals. Unlike magnesium and
zinc, for which there are recognized daily intake standards, no
such yardstick exists for sulfiir intake.
From a nutritional standpoint, sulfur—like Rodney Danger-
field—receives little respect. Although it is clearly necessary
for health, sulfur per se is not regarded as an essential nutri-

tional element. The U.S. Academy of Sciences' Food and Nutri-
tion Board, which creates the recommended daily allowance for
nutrients—the suggested amount we should eat in order to main-
tain health—doesn't include sulfur in its considerations. By
comparison, recommendations exist for a number of other min-
eral nutrients, such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc.
Physicians know that you need a certain level of these minerals in
your diet and can often trace health problems to low intakes.
The late Carl Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D., a world-renowned expert
on nutritional medicine, once described sulfur as "the forgotten
essential element."
The cause of sulfur neglect is anchored to the widespread
assumption that a person's sulfur requirement is met when protein
intake is adequate. When not enough protein is ingested, defi-
ciency diseases develop—the kind you see associated with starva-
tion in Africa, for instances, where bodies literally fall apart.
In our typical Western diet, adequate protein usually isn't a
problem. If anything, nutritionists say, we may eat too much pro-
tein. The elderly, however, may not consume enough protein,
according to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Researchers at the University of Texas suggest that the loss of
muscle mass associated with aging may be avoided if adequate
protein is eaten. Muscle atrophy in the elderly leads to a reduction
in performance, increased risk of falls, and a heightened suscepti-
bility to bone fractures.
Two important constituents of protein, the amino acids
methionine and cysteine, provide us with a paramount source of
sulfur. These aminos are present in the animal protein sources of
meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products. From the plant world, pro-
teins from garlic, onions, asparagus, avocados, beans, peas, cab-
bage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, horseradish,
and sunflower seeds are also sulfur bearers. And, yes, even choco-
late has a bit. The cruciferous vegetables—such as cabbage, Brus-
sels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower—also contain other sulfur
compounds not related to amino acids that have been identified as
important contributors to the body's natural detoxification
processes.

Given the range of food choices, it appears understandable
why a sulfur deficiency is assumed to be nonexistent. Beyond the
assumption, however, there is little evidence. Medical science
knows a good deal about deficiencies of many vitamins and miner-
als, but not about sulfur.
One sulfur researcher at a major university put it this way:
"People look so little at sulfur nutritionally because it is so
well known that sulfur-containing proteins, which are in the foods
we eat, must be present in plants or else the plants don't grow.
When we meet our protein requirements we have enough sulfur
produced through the breakdown of the protein to obtain the
body's sulfur needs. Basically, anything we eat with protein in it
is going to have sulfur amino acids, primarily methionine and
cysteine."
Asked about sulfur deficiency in the population, a spokes-
woman at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrient Data
Laboratory simply said, "Sulfur isn't something we compile data
on. We don't list the sulfur content of foods. It's not on our radar
screen." Another government nutrition official said she doesn't
remember "ever" seeing a study on sulfur. "We look at a lot of
minerals, including tin and even arsenic," she said. "But sulfur
isn't even among them."
Americans are notoriously deficient in many important nutri-
ents because of our poor eating habits, which has a lot to do with
our poor health statistics. A 1996 University of San Francisco
study that made nationwide headlines concluded that nearly 100
million of us—40 per cent of the population—are afflicted with
some form of chronic ailment. Could there be an unrecognized
sulfur deficiency—marginal enough to contribute to this bleak
statistic? Nobody has a real answer yet.
Melvyn R. Werbach, M.D., a well-known medical researcher
and author of Nutritional Influences on Illness (Third Line Press),
questions assumptions being made about adequacies of sulfur or
any nutrient. "I have been surprised in my research to find so little
information about sulfur," he says. "There are big, big holes in our
knowledge about this mineral nutrient. How do we really know
there isn't a sulfur deficiency?"

Muddled Methionine
The food choices that many of us make—nutrient-poor diets
heavy in processed, devitalized foods—contribute to self-inflicted
deficiencies and imbalances of many different vitamins, minerals,
and amino acids. Nutritional surveys continually show vast num-
bers of Americans with low or suboptimal intakes of essential
nutrients, levels that experts such as Harvard nutritional
researchers Meir Stampfer and Walter Willett say are "strongly . . .
associated with serious health consequences."
Methionine, as we have seen earlier, is an essential sulfur
amino acid we must obtain from our diet. The body processes
methionine into other important sulfur amino acids—cysteine,
cystine, and taurine, plus countless hormones and structural pro-
teins. While medical science recognizes the existence of certain
inherited disorders of amino acid and sulfur metabolism, the
major problems related to methionine probably lie elsewhere: a
lack of good vitamins and minerals—the nutritional co-factors
—
needed to process methionine properly. Minerals such as magne-
sium and zinc, as well as the B-complex vitamins B^ and folic acid
are all commonly deficient in the average diet.
In the case of a B^ and folic acid shortage, the results can be
catastrophic: The liver is unable to properly process methionine.
In a complex biochemical sequence, this shortage causes a rise in
the level of homocysteine, a toxic amino acid. Elevated homocys-
teine has been found to trigger vascular disease that takes the lives
of nearly a million Americans a year and affects more than 57 mil-
lion individuals. Homocysteine is being increasingly seen as a
more significant heart attack and stroke risk factor than choles-
terol. We don't eat enough whole grains, fruits, and vegetables
—
excellent sources of vitamin B^ and folic acid. Instead, we eat
enormous amounts of refined, denuded grains, and consume con-
siderable quantities of sugar-laden foods and animal protein,
which deplete the body of B complex vitamins, particularly B^^^.
Other reasons for problems with methionine include the
aging process. Nutrient levels tend to decline with age as the

body becomes less efficient. We know that many vitamins and
minerals—including B^^ and folic acid—are present in lower
quantities in the elderly than in younger people. The level of
digestive enzymes, necessary for proper protein and methionine
breakdown, also decline with age.
In addition to these considerations, there is evidence associat-
ing abnormalities or low levels of sulfur-bearing amino acids in
patients with a variety of disorders. Such evidence appeared in an
issue on sulfur (August 1997) in The Moss Nutrition Report, a
nationally circulated newsletter written by Jeffrey Moss, D.D.S., a
Massachusetts-based nutritional researcher. Moss cited the follow-
ing references, among others:
• In a textbook on amino acid metabolism, Vernon R. Young
and Antoine E. El-Khoury of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology question "the prevailing dogma . . . (that) the physiologi-
cal requirements for the sulfur amino acids can be fully met
through a generous intake of methionine alone," and particularly
during situations of severe physical trauma and stress.
• An analysis of nutritional and metabolic data by Jon Pang-
born, Ph.D., a well-known nutritional biochemist affiliated with
the Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratories in Asheville, North
Carolina, found that the metabolism of methionine is the "most
frequently impaired or disordered amino acid" among 1,500 indi-
viduals with food and chemical intolerances, degenerative dis-
eases, neuromuscular dysfunction, and mental diseases.
"These findings do not prove or disprove nutritional defi-
ciency," wrote Moss. "However, they lend strong support to the
assumption that methionine metabolism is imbalanced in sick
people."
In his book Mental and Elemental Nutrients (Keats Publishing),
Carl Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D., looked back to the nineteenth century
where elemental sulfur was used to treat many disorders because
no better remedies were available. "If these uses are reviewed with
the thought that sulfur deficiency may perhaps occur in man as

well as in animals, then some of the old uses of sulfur make good
sense," he wrote.
MSM, as you will read later in this book, reduces many of the
symptoms associated with the conditions just mentioned. In addi-
tion to its DMSO-related properties, it may play a role in correct-
ing sulfur amino acid abnormalities and possible sulfur
deficiencies. We know from animal studies that a small amount of
sulfur from MSM supplementation enters into methionine and
cysteine in the body. This utilization could fortify these crucial
amino acids.
Do people in a health crisis or recovering from trauma, have
an increased demand for more sulfur? We know that a body under
physiologic stress has an increased demand for more nutrients.
Does that include an increased need for sulfur?
Does the sulfur payload of MSM strengthen the body's ability
to carry out critical detoxification and tissue-building activities in
times of physical stress?
Can an MSM supplement come in, like a white knight, and
cover these bases?
At this point in time, we have many questions but not all the
answers. We know from our clinical observations that MSM helps
reduce pain, inflammation, and other symptoms, and it accelerates
healing without adverse side effects. What we need are additional
scientific studies to answer many important issues, hitherto
largely neglected, about the role of sulfur in health and illness.
A New Generation of Awareness,
a New Breed of Nutrients
Our modern medical system performs brilliantly in the area of
emergency medicine, acute care treatment, and sophisticated sur-
gical procedures. Yet the system often falls short in dealing with
chronic ailments. Many of the approved treatments, procedures,
and drugs cause substantial—and even deadly—new symptoms.
Despite the highest medical costs in the world, we have some of
the worst health statistics of all industrialized countries. In a 1993

ranking of health among the developed nations, the World Health
Organization (WHO) listed the U.S. as eighteenth!
Many patients do not benefit from standard medical treat-
ments and go elsewhere for relief, to so-called alternative practi-
tioners, even if they have to pay out of their own pockets. In 1990,
one-third of Americans visited an alternative doctor, spending
about $14 billion out of their own pockets for 425 million office
visits not covered by conventional health plans, according to a
1993 New EnglandJournal ofMedicine study that put real numbers
on a growing consumer trend for the first time.
In a 1998 Standford University study published in theJournal
of the American Medical Association, 40 percent of more than one
thousand randomly selected people around the U.S. said they used
some form of alternative health care during the previous year. The
most frequently cited health problem treated with alternative
therapy, the report said, was chronic pain (37 percent).
This consumer trend has rocked the medical establishment.
Increasing numbers of medical schools are offering courses in
alternative practices. Hospitals and medical centers are opening
wings to deliver alternative treatments. Late in 1998, the Journal
ofthe American Medical Association devoted an entire issue to studies
evaluating alternative treatments. According to a 1998 Los Angeles
Times series, thirty major insurers are now covering more than one
form of alternative medicine.
Within this overall medical shift a new attitude has developed
toward nutritional supplements. Prior to 1990, vitamins and
minerals were viewed narrowly by most physicians as necessary
elements contained in food that prevented nutritional deficiency
states such as scurvy, beriberi, rickets, and pellagra. The prevail-
ing attitude held that supplementation was unnecessary because a
balanced diet was supposed to provide all the good nutrition our
bodies needed. For decades, only a small minority of nutritionally
oriented physicians advocated supplements as a potent, safe, and
inexpensive way to help treat illness and create optimum health.
Current nutritional research has weakened the conventional
viewpoint and supported the minority idea. For one thing, nutri-
tionists acknowledge that huge numbers of people fail to eat any-

thing resembling a balanced or nutritionally sound diet. In addi-
tion, many studies now show that individual nutrients at doses
higher than those usually present in the diet can have a profound
preventive and therapeutic impact against serious diseases. Mas-
sive consumer interest and an avalanche of scientific discoveries
about vitamin, mineral, amino acid, herbal, and phytochemical
(natural plant compounds) supplementation in recent years are
causing physicians to take a broader look at the health-promoting
and cost-reducing potential that these natural substances offer.
Research has demonstrated, for instance, that vitamin E sup-
plementation combats arterial plaque formation and enhances
immune function. Contemporary studies have backed the clinical
observations of Canadian physicians Wilfrid and Evan Shute, first
made more than fifty years ago, that vitamin E helped ailing
hearts. While the medical community shunned the Shute broth-
ers, it was their persistent reporting of positive, and often dra-
matic experiences with patients, that led to the popularity of
vitamin E today.
At a landmark 1992 symposium sponsored by the New York
Academy of Science, researchers presented many new findings on
the beneficial effects of vitamins and minerals against cancer, heart
disease, and other illnesses. The symposium was called "Beyond
Deficiency: New Views on the Function and Health Effects of Vit-
amins." Medical World News, a periodical read by many doctors,
led off its January 1993 issue with an article entitled "Vitamins:
Emerging as Disease Fighters, Not Just Supplements." The article
said that new studies on the role of vitamins are shifting the foun-
dations of nutrition research, policy, and public health in this
country.
A whole new era appears to be dawning where physicians will
be guided in their treatment of illness by integrative methods
combining the best of pharmaceutical, surgical, and natural tools
available to them. A new breed of food-based substances and nat-
ural compounds has emerged as exciting new nutritional supple-
ments to participate in this new healing age. MSM is one of them.

Chapter Three
How to Take MSM
®SM is a nutritional supplement with many nurturing and
health-enhancing properties. If you are under treatment for any
condition that is mentioned in this book, we recommend that you
bring our observations to your physician's attention and obtain his
or her professional opinion regarding your use of the supplement.
In many instances, MSM's beneficial effects on the body permit a
reduction in prescriptive medication, which, in turn, may reduce
side effects.
Please keep your doctor informed. Do not reduce medication
on your own.
Q: What are the available forms ofMSM?
A: The general use of MSM is either orally, as capsules or crys-
tals, or applied topically to the skin as a lotion, cream, or gel.
Q: What is the best form ofMSM?
A: You should take whatever form is most convenient for you.
If you are taking 2 or 3 grams a day or less, the capsules may be
the most convenient. For higher doses, you may like to use MSM

How to Take MSM 41
crystals and mix them into water, juice, or any nonalcoholic bever-
age, including coffee or tea.
A level measured pharmacist's teaspoon holds about 4 grams,
or 4,000 milligrams of MSM crystals. A level kitchen teaspoon,
somewhat larger, will hold about 5 grams (5,000 milligrams). The
crystals have a bitter taste.
Q: How much MSM should I take?
A: Whether you're taking a medication or a nutritional sup-
plement, you should always take the least possible amount that
gives you the benefit you desire. This same idea applies to MSM.
More is not necessarily better.
Each of us are unique individuals with different genetic
makeup, sizes, hormones, tolerances, energy, resistance, and levels
of health or illness. Even if two people have the same type and
severity of disease, each brings into play a different set of strengths
and weaknesses with which to counteract it.
Because we are so different, our bodies also respond somewhat
differently to medication. One aspirin may work for your
headache but your brother with the same headache may need two.
The same is true of natural remedies and nutritional supplements.
One gram of MSM may give you a shot of energy but your brother
may need five grams to feel the same effect.
Over the years, thousands of patients have experienced heal-
ing benefits by taking 2 to 8 grams (2,000 to 8,000 milligrams) of
MSM a day, the amount depending on their gastrointestinal (or
GI) tolerance and their condition.
For general maintenance and health, a dosage of around 2
grams (2,000 milligrams) or less is usually adequate.
Higher doses are typically necessary to experience therapeutic
effects. You may need 3 to 4 grams of MSM a day to control your
allergic symptoms of sneezing, runny nose, and burning eyes dur-
ing pollen season.
For severe, deep-seated conditions, you will probably need
higher doses, and sometimes much higher, to experience relief.
We have used extremely large doses in the treatment of extraordi-

U2 The Miracle of MSM
nary cases. We have recommended 40 or 60 grams and up in
incremental daily doses for severe conditions, but in these
instances patients were under our personal supervision.
It is our opinion that the higher the dose you can take without
developing an upset stomach the quicker you will experience a
healing response and the fewer symptomatic recurrences you will
have. If you don't see a response, increase your dosage slowly.
Start low. Work up slowly. That's our general recommenda-
tion. Build up to an optimum dose perhaps over a two- or three-
week period. Many people start off with 2 grams a day and
increase another gram or two after several days. If you wish to go
higher, raise your dose again by a similar amount several days
later.
As you raise the level of MSM it is a good idea to divide the
doses during the day. That helps your body become accustomed to
the MSM.
This is not a cookbook. Dosages are not carved in stone. The
recommendations we make are based on years of clinical experi-
ence. Just remember the individuality principle.
Q: What ^fI take too much MSMP
A: If you overdo it, you may develop minor gastrointestinal
discomfort or more frequent stools. Just cut back if that happens.
Taking MSM in two or three doses over the day reduces the
possibility of a GI reaction. Divided doses are recommended in
particular for people taking larger quantities of MSM.
We have heard that some athletes and bodybuilders involved
in high-intensity training start with relatively high levels of MSM
to increase stamina and reduce muscle soreness. Some take 5 or
more grams before and after workouts right from the start. We
have been told that a number of them have experienced headaches
or GI reactions in the beginning. Our recommendation for ath-
letes and nonathletes alike is always to start low and build up
slowly.
For pain and inflammatory conditions, and musculo-skele-
tal problems, we generally recommend the "double-barreled

How to Take MSM 43
approach"—MSM orally and topically. Topically means applying
an MSM gel or lotion to the affected area.
Q: Should I take MSM on an empty stomach or with meals?
A: Although many people take it on an empty stomach, it is
probably best to have some food in the stomach. Taking it during
or after meals minimizes the chance of developing the possibility
of minor gastrointestinal upset when you first start using it.
As a general rule, don't take MSM close to bedtime. It might
keep you awake. MSM has the tendency to increase your energy
level.
Q: Howfast does MSM work?
A: There is no way to predict your response because every sit-
uation is different. Benefits can occur immediately, within days, or
they can take much longer. Some people start to notice an appre-
ciable decrease in pain the day after starting the supplement. For
others, noticeable improvement may take months.
Q: How safe is MSM?
A: The overwhelming majority of people have no problem
with MSM. It is extremely safe. We haven't heard of any serious
side effects to date. Thousands of patients have taken two grams
and more daily of MSM for many months and years with no seri-
ous side effects.
Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that MSM is a biologi-
cally active substance. It has pharmacologic activity, meaning it
can produce effects in the body. Such effects are described in this
book and are virtually of a positive nature. Still, any agent with
pharmacologic activity also has the potential for side effects.
Any substance on the planet, including water, has the poten-
tial to cause a reaction in some person somewhere. If you are a
hypersensitive individual and have any doubts about using this
supplement, consult with your physician first.
As already stated, taking too large a dose at one time for your
particular constitution could cause some minor gastrointestinal

upset, increased stool, or minimal abdominal cramping. If this
occurs, reduce the level of MSM. That should take care of the dis-
comfort.
Some people who might benefit the most from higher doses
may not be able to reach their optimum level because of GI intol-
erance. After reducing the dosage to a level that you tolerate, you
can try very slowly raising it again. However, if your body says
"that's it," then listen. Your body knows best.
Experience over the years suggests that MSM may have a sim-
ilar dosage characteristic as vitamin C. By that we mean that if the
body has a greater need for it there is a greater tolerance for higher
doses.
It is well known that the sicker you are, the more vitamin C
your body utilizes and tolerates. As an example, if you were to
take 5 grams of vitamin C you might get temporary diarrhea.
That is the major side effect of taking too much vitamin C. If you
have a heavy cold or flu, you might be able to take 20 grams, or
even much more in a very severe situation, without incurring any
diarrhea.
Physicians familiar with vitamin C therapeutics refer to this
as bowel tolerance. The sicker you are, the more your body needs,
and the more you tolerate. Once you are healthy again, your body
would not need the high level of the vitamin, and large doses
would once again cause diarrhea. It is just below these bowel tol-
erance levels, the experts say, that vitamin C has its most powerful
therapeutic effect.
There have been accounts in the medical literature of occa-
sional minor skin rashes associated with DMSO. Because MSM is
a related substance, the potential for a similar reaction also exists.
Again, reducing dosage usually takes care of the problem. If it
does not, than stop the MSM and try to resume it again in a few
days but at a reduced level. If you develop a rash again, you should
probably discontinue taking the supplement.
Temporary minor headaches may occasionally occur in the
very beginning if a person starts at too high a level. For this reason
we always recommend starting on a low dosage and increasing
slowly.

How to Take MSM 45
Q: /// take too much MSM could it kill me?
A: In Chapter 2 we talked about the safety of MSM. We have
studied the safety issue in a number of experiments, one of which
is a standard scientific test known as LD-50. This test determines
how much of any given substance is lethal to laboratory animals.
MSM was shown to have one-seventh the "toxicity" of common
table salt. That means it is very safe and comparable, we believe,
to water. In more than twenty years of MSM usage, we have never
heard that it caused any serious reactions.
Q: Can I take MSM indefinitely?
A: We have patients who have taken MSM for nearly twenty
years. One of our daughters has been taking MSM for eighteen
years. She is now in her early twenties. We gave it to her because
we feel it has many protective benefits, including strengthening
the immune system. There is no scientific evidence for that, but
people who take it regularly appear to have fewer colds and viral
infections.
One of us (Jacob) has been taking MSM for many years.
We have found that many people derive benefits from MSM
only as long as they continue to take it. Once the supplement is
discontinued, benefits may disappear. However, MSM can also
contribute to the healing process and after some point may not be
needed any longer. In any case, MSM can be taken for a long
period of time.
Q: Will taking MSM interfere with my medication?
A: MSM has great potential as a nutritional supplement that
can be used to support medical treatments. After many years of
clinical use, it has not been found to interfere with any prescribed
medication.
It is worth repeating that the healing effects of MSM often
allow cutting back on prescriptions and sometimes even eliminat-
ing medication. However, never make the decision on your own. If
you are under medical care, inform your physician first about your
intention to take MSM. Show this book to your physician. Only
your doctor should advise you whether to cut back or not.

MSM and blood tests: We have done numerous blood chem-
istry workups on patients and found that MSM does not cause any
abnormal readings—with one exception. If you are scheduled to
have liver function testing and are taking MSM, you should stop
the supplement for about four days before the test. MSM has never
been found to cause liver damage but it may interfere with the
accuracy of the test for liver enzymes by sometimes producing
false positives. Elevated enzymes are an indication of a liver disor-
der. You can resume the supplement after your liver test.
Q: Are there any interactions between MSM and other medications?
A: DMSO has been found in studies to counteract platelet
aggregation. MSM has not been similarly tested in scientific stud-
ies for this effect, but clinical observations indicate it may have a
blood-thinning, aspirinlike effect on platelet aggregation as well.
Platelets are structures found in the blood that play a major
role in clotting. Excessive platelet clumping can form dangerous
clots that participate in narrowing of the arteries associated with
heart attacks and stroke.
Aspirin has been known for about twenty-five years to help
reduce clotting activity, and millions of people take it as a cardio-
vascular preventive agent for this reason.
Our concern is that anyone taking high doses of aspirin, or
blood-thinning medication such as heparin or dicumarol, should
exercise caution when using MSM.
It is not known if MSM can play a beneficial role in prevent-
ing cardiovascular disease. This potential deserves to be investi-
gated, given the interest in cardiovascular research to find effective
anticoagulant agents.
However, if MSM is taken along with proven blood-thinning
agents, an accelerated blood-thinning effect cannot be ruled out.
Indications of such an effect might be the development of bruises
on the body or increased bleeding from hemorrhoids.
If you are taking blood thinners such as heparin, dicumarol, or
aspirin on a regular basis, we strongly recommend you consult
first with your physician before using MSM as a nutritional sup-
plement. If your physician approves, start at a low dose of MSM,

How to Take MSM ^7
perhaps one gram a day, and then very slowly increase dosage to an
optimum level. Be certain to have your coagulation parameters
monitored frequently. If any signs of bleeding appear, check
immediately with your physician.
Q: Is it safe for a pregnant woman to take MSM?
A: Clinical experience indicates that MSM is safe for pregnant
women. We recommend, however, that you consult first with your
physician before taking this or any other supplement or medica-
tion.
Q: Can a child take MSM?
A: Children usually don't need MSM as a nutritional supple-
ment. Parents whose children have allergies, asthma, or an inflam-
matory illness such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis should refer to
the chapters on those conditions and consider the use of MSM as
an addition to regular treatment.
Many children have taken MSM, some in very large amounts,
without any problem.
Q: What if my child or my dog swallows a lot ofMSM?
A: MSM is very safe. If you determine that a child has swal-
lowed this or any other supplement or a medication, the child
should be evaluated by your physician or at a hospital emergency
room. If your pet has swallowed a large amount of MSM, the ani-
mal could possibly develop diarrhea. The reaction would depend
on the amount ingested. If you have any doubts, take the animal
to your veterinarian.
Q: Vm allergic to sulfites. Does that mean I will be allergic to
MSM?
A: Don't confuse MSM with sulfites. MSM is a sulfur com-
pound but it is not a sulfite. The body produces sulfites in its
normal metabolism of sulfiir-containing amino acids. Sulfite com-
pounds have been used for more than three hundred years and are
generally considered safe. Currently they are used to control
microbial growth and prevent browning and spoilage. However,

The Miracle of MSM The Natural Solution for Pain by Stanley W. Jacob Ronald W Laurence Martin Zucker (z-lib.org) (1).pdf

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